U.S. Chides Israel for Closing Temple Mount After Shooting of U.S. Citizen

In a week that a senior administration official hurled juvenile slurs at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, tensions in the Middle East escalated into a big-league crisis with a terrorist attack on a U.S. citizen.

The reaction from the administration was the predictable call for everyone to calm down and de-escalate tensions -- along with pointing a finger at Israel for escalation.

Yehuda Glick, a U.S.-born activist who has campaigned for the right of Jews to pray at the Temple Mount, was hit in a drive-by shooting Wednesday night after attending a conference about the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Glick was shot four times, and the Jerusalem Postreported he was in serious but stable condition on Thursday night.

His suspected attacker, Moataz Hejazi, an Islamic Jihad member who spent more than 11 years behind bars, died in a shootout with police early Thursday. After he was released from prison two years ago Hejazi vowed to be "a thorn in the throat of the Zionist plan to Judaize Jerusalem."

“The attempted murderer turned to him and confirmed in Hebrew, in a heavy Arabic accent, that it was Yehuda,” Moshe Feiglin, a Likud member of the Knesset, told reporters, according to Haaretz.

Israeli authorities temporarily closed the Temple Mount after the assassination attempt. Netanyahu spokesman Ofir Gendelman tweeted that it was "intended to reduce friction during this sensitive period & bring the situation back to normal."

That was enough for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to call it "a declaration of war."

Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh told CNN that closing the site was a "brazen challenge" that would lead to "further tensions and instability." Islamic Jihad and Hamas called for a "battle of liberation" following Glick's shooting.

Secretary of State John Kerry called on Israel to respect the mosque.

Without naming Glick, Kerry said in a statement this evening, "I strongly condemn yesterday’s shooting of a U.S. citizen outside the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem."

"I am extremely concerned by escalating tensions across Jerusalem and particularly surrounding the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount. It is absolutely critical that all sides exercise restraint, refrain from provocative actions and rhetoric, and preserve the historic status quo on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount – in word and in practice," Kerry continued.

"The continued commitment by Israelis, Palestinians, and Jordanians to preserve the historic status quo at this holy site is critical; any decisions or actions to change it would be both provocative and dangerous," he said. "The Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount must be re-opened to Muslim worshipers and I support the long-standing practices regarding non-Muslim visitors to the site, consistent with respect for the status quo arrangements governing religious observance there."

Kerry said he was "in close touch with senior Israeli, Jordanian, and Palestinian leaders to try to de-escalate the situation."

"I urge the leaders of all three parties to exercise decisive leadership and work cooperatively together to lower tensions and discourage violence, alleviate restrictions on Muslim worshipers, and reinvigorate long-standing coordination mechanisms and relationships that have served over the decades to preserve the historic status quo as it pertains to religious observance and access to the site."

Press secretary Jen Psaki said much the same earlier in the day while briefing reporters.

"It’s consistently been the case that we believe that Muslim worshippers should be able to worship... a consistent position of the United States," Psaki said.